The Hillsdale Chargers football team fell to the Kentucky Wesleyan Panthers 27-31 in a tough road battle for its first in-conference loss of the season.
Hillsdale now falls to 3-2 overall, and sits at third place in the G-MAC standings, behind the Tiffin Dragons and Ashland Eagles, who are 3-0 and 2-0 respectively.
The Chargers were either beating or tied with the Panthers for all but the final 99 seconds of the second half before a late touchdown gave Kentucky its first lead since the second minute of the second quarter.
“I thought we played as physical as we have played, and I thought we had great field position all day through a great performance in the kicking game,” head coach Keith Otterbein said. “We just missed our opportunities to capture momentum and really seize control of the game. As you go through a game, if you let somebody hang around, what happened can happen.”
Though playing with a broken hand, sophomore wide receiver Isaac TeSlaa still led the team in receptions and receiving yards, catching six passes for 85 yards. Despite adding no touchdowns to his season total, TeSlaa remains tied for the nation’s lead in receiving touchdowns among Division II players. He also ranks third in the nation in receiving yards, with 657 on the season. Even so, Otterbein said the offense’s use of Run Pass Option (RPO) plays resulted in less targets for TeSlaa.
“He made a phenomenal catch on the first drive, that was pretty incredible, kind of behind the guy’s back, or around him,” Otterbein said. “We had some plays called to target him, and with the RPO game, sometimes they’re not there, and you hand the ball off.”
The Chargers scored touchdowns on each of their first two drives, both capped off by runs from junior running back Caden Goggins, who finished the game scoring touchdowns on two of his four carries.
“I think we did super well with running the ball and keeping that momentum in the first half,” senior running back Michael Herzog said. “We just had to keep that rolling throughout the second half.”
Herzog led the team in rushing, finishing the game with 18 carries for 81 yards.
On the drive following the Chargers’ second score, the Panthers’ punt was blocked, and sophomore running back Jack Robinson returned the loose ball 37 yards for Hillsdale’s third touchdown of the day.
After halftime, however, the Chargers offense never found the end zone again. Hillsdale turned the ball over three times in the second half, including two of fifth-year senior quarterback Luke Keller’s three interceptions.
“The fact that it was three picks wasn’t it, but the fact that he missed some of his throws that he normally would make, those are the things that you’ve got to worry about” Otterbein said.
A Panthers touchdown with under ten minutes to play tied the score, and after a three-and-out from Hillsdale, an interception by freshman defensive back Vince Francescone gave the Chargers the ball back on Kentucky’s nine yard-line.
“They ran a little bit of a boot action out toward us, faked the hand off, and booted it around,” Francescone said. “I had a guy coming toward my flat but I saw the quarterback eyeing down the guy behind me, so I just dropped off my guy and stepped in there.”
The Chargers, however, were unable to capitalize, picking up just two yards in three plays before regaining the lead with a field goal from sophomore Julian Lee.
The following drive, the Panthers used eight plays to march 75 yards and score a touchdown with under two minutes left to play. Though the Chargers’ defense forced a turnover on downs in between, interceptions on back-to-back drives sealed Hillsdale’s first G-MAC loss of the season.
“We just didn’t make plays when we needed to make plays this weekend,” Francescone said. “We’re looking forward to moving on to the next one. We’ve got a big one coming up and I think everyone’s ready to go for this one.”
The Chargers will be facing off against the conference-leading Dragons this weekend for their Homecoming game. Tiffin is second in the G-MAC in scoring both offensively and defensively, and lead the conference in rushing defense. The game is set to kick off at 4 p.m. on Saturday in Frank “Muddy” Water Stadium.
“They’ve got dudes,” Otterbein said. “They’ve got a really good quarterback who throws it well. They’ve got good skill, especially their wide receiver #1. They’ve got a really good running back, who is very very difficult to bring down, and they’re the complete package when it comes to the defensive side of the ball.”